


Anger to Adrenaline

by Im_The_Doctor (Bofur1)



Category: Blue Bloods (TV)
Genre: Ambushes and Sneak Attacks, Blindfolds, Blindness, Blood and Violence, Eventual Happy Ending, Family Feels, Gags, Gun Violence, Hospitalization, Hostage Situations, Major Character Injury, Medical Trauma, Muteness, Pre-Series, Rescue Missions, Stalking, Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-10
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-29 23:44:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3915127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bofur1/pseuds/Im_The_Doctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny, caught off-guard and taken hostage by a ring of drug-traffickers, is tortured and turned into leverage against his powerful family. After all, <em>“It’s not every day you get to make a spectacle of a Reagan!”<em></em></em></p>
            </blockquote>





	Anger to Adrenaline

As soon as he came to, Danny literally saw red; blood was dribbling from his hairline to his left eye. It was all he could see; when he blinked, anything past it was the inside of what felt like a burlap sack. It was drawn tightly over his head, some of it forced between his lips by some kind of rope or strap. He swallowed awkwardly around it.

Ignoring the whooshing sensation in his head, Danny focused his thoughts beyond the burlap. He was on his knees, his ankles tied together, with his upper body pinned to something that felt like a post; experimentally he rotated his prickly-nerved hands.

Secured with handcuffs, probably his own. These perps really knew how to put a guy down.

Earlier he’d split up with Jackie when four coke-traffickers they’d been tailing took different turns—three to the left, the loner to the right. Being a courteous partner, Danny had directed Jackie after the loner, figuring he’d be the easier of their choices. He’d followed the trio around another corner and his courtesy had decided to bite him in the butt—or rather, smack him in the head in the form of a pipe.

 _Blind and mute. Best make use of your other senses, Reagan_. Hiking his arms up the pole, he used the leverage to slide his legs out from underneath him, exhaling softly in relief as he stretched the stiffness out of them. He relaxed his arms, brushing his hands against the floor. Beneath the layer of dirt, it felt like cracked linoleum.

A sudden, vicious boot to his right ankle caused him to yelp and bring his legs up to his chest, shielding himself as best he could against another blow. None came, at least not yet.

“’sup, Detective? How you feelin’?” There was a smirk in the perp’s deep timbre; Danny could take a stab at it being Emmet Knox, the burly third or fourth in command of the traffickers, though he’d only ever heard Knox’s voice on recordings.

“Guess you didn’t expect the pipe, eh? That was me.” Now that he was paying attention, Danny heard the thump of Knox’s boots. He was circling around him, a predatory action that Danny didn’t like in the least. He tugged at the cuffs again, rubbing his wrists raw, and clenched his hands into frustrated fists.

“You cops make nice cuffs, I have to admit. You _know_ you’re not gettin’ outta those, not before we have our fun. It’s not every day you get to make a spectacle of a Reagan! And on camera too. Once I’m done with you, I’ll send this video to your big, bad commissioner.”

Danny immediately tried to struggle when Knox began rifling through his pants, but with his ankles tied together it wasn’t too helpful. He felt his wallet withdrawn and Knox made a noise between satisfaction and disgust—Danny carried a couple fifties and a twenty. Danny perked up when he heard his wallet land on another surface. A counter, maybe? Was he in some old kitchen?

“Got anythin’ else on you, Reagan?” Knox asked, starting to circle once more. Danny grumbled choice words against the gag, falling silent when Knox halted again; the perp was standing behind him, on the other side of the post. “Ooh. Nice ring, married man.”

 _Not that_ , Danny thought, his fingernails biting into his palms. Eventually Knox thought it best to go at the wrists, twisting them out and up so pain shot through Danny’s arm sockets and down his arms, shocking his fists loose. Meaty fingers wrapped around his, peeling them open, and tugged roughly at his ring. It cut his knuckle as it passed, but the burning sensation became nothing when Knox bent his finger and jerked it out of place with a sharp crack. Danny screamed, unsure why he was resisting the urge to black out.

“Yeah, could probably make a little money with this,” Knox mused as he set the ring on the same surface as the wallet. “Reagan? You alive in there? C’mon, a little broken finger wouldn’t kill you.”

Danny remained completely still, gathering what energy he could, tapping into his pain and anger. As he’d suspected and hoped, Knox was coming closer again. As soon as he was sure Knox was within range, Danny heaved his legs forward with as much force as he could muster, landing a heavy blow to what felt like Knox’s calves. It sent his perp toppling with a curse, but Danny didn’t know what his plan had been beyond that.

He tried to get his legs underneath him now, tried to stand, but Knox was the one with circulation in his legs. Danny heard him stand first and then the same thick-soled boot from earlier crashed into his side. It was a poorly-aimed blow, but somehow it managed to glance off his liver. All of Danny’s breath left him in an agonized cry as he skidded sideways on the floor, held upright only by the cuffs.

“You thought you could pull a fast one on me?!” Knox shouted, lashing out with blows to whatever he could reach. Danny tried to curl up small, but that changed when the bag around his head was yanked. The strap securing it tightened, bruising his throat in a strangle-hold. He tried to follow it up to relieve the pressure, but his feet slid out on the linoleum. He tried to groan or scream, make any kind of noise, but the strap wouldn’t allow for it. For a terrible moment, he simply _hung_.

The return landing sent a ripple of pain over his spine, but he was more focused on air. Breath came hard on and fast to him and he strained toward calm, too much carbon dioxide enclosed in the sack making him lightheaded. A swift punch to his face slammed him back into the metal post. For a long moment all he felt was blood soaking his gag and trickling down his throat. Darkness encroached.

An indeterminate amount of time later, Danny’s waking thought was that he was glad no one he knew was there to hear him whimper and cough.

Speaking of people he knew…

“You wanna know why I’m doing all this, Detective?” Knox hissed. Danny shook his head _no_ and Knox laughed shortly. “That fellow your partner caught, he’s gonna be traded for your sorry self. But, sadly for you, I gotta rough you up a bit to raise the stakes for your family. If I do a _peachy_ job, maybe your pretty little sister will drop the charges against my buddy.”

To his relief, Danny felt a rush of adrenaline at the mention of Erin, a rush that started ebbing the pain a little.

“And she _is_ pretty,” Knox continued, arrogance returning to his voice as he snarked, “Are lawsuits all she charges?”

Add anger to adrenaline. Danny’s jaw clenched, indenting the fabric of the gag with his teeth. He remained perfectly still, trying to formulate a better plan than last time. Just as ideas were starting to form, Knox planted a boot on his chest, startling him.

“So, Detective, I’m gonna raise the stakes quite a bit.”

Danny stiffened when he felt the cool flat of a blade against his throat, descending at just the right angle to graze him. He had to remain perfectly still, lest the blade cut deeper, but it went against everything in his instinct.

Somewhere a door burst open and Danny felt the air stinging the new incision below his carotid artery as Knox whirled around with a surprised shout. Danny cringed into a smaller target when he heard the popping of gunfire, a weighty thud, and then silence reigned. At last, a voice:

“Danny? Danny!”

 _Joe_.

Footsteps approaching and then the two straps unwinding from his throat and mouth. Danny couldn’t help but sob in relief as the gag was deftly pried from his mouth, dark with blood. The sack then went over his head and even the dim light was blinding to him. Danny squeezed his eyes shut, his cramping shoulders fighting to their proper angles as the cuffs were opened by another set of hands.

“Call for a bus forthwith,” he heard Joe commanding his partner. “I’ve got him.” Then, gentler, “Danny? Hey, bro, can you hear me?”

Unable to form words yet, Danny finally peeked blearily up at him. Joe looked almost as exhausted as he himself felt, but there was fear, relief, and anger too.

“Let’s get you standing,” Joe said at last. Danny nodded mutely, watching through half-closed eyes as Joe cut the tie around his ankles. Every bruised muscle in his body protesting, he let Joe help him to his feet, the rush of blood to them nearly sending him back down as throbbing circulation thawed the numbness. As they began shuffling toward the door, Joe paused, reaching with his left hand to scoop up Danny’s wallet and bloody wedding ring from the kitchen counter.

Later, her eyes trailing over each item on the list as she spoke, Erin said, “The doctor says you have various cuts and bruises, a concussion, and a broken nose and finger.”

“Yeh, wouldn’t I know it,” Danny murmured as he sank further into his hospital bed, too weary to add much snark to his tone.

“If only you knew the uproar you caused,” Joe put in with a short huff of laughter. “I don’t think I’ve seen a perp _quail_ before, at least not until your partner got in the box.”

“Remind me to send one a’ these bouquets back to her as a thank-you,” Danny requested. He hazarded a glance at his father, who stood in the corner. “You’re bein’ awfully quiet,” he commented cautiously.

“I just…don’t know what I would do if I lost you,” Frank sighed, shoving his hands in the pockets of his blazer.

There was a moment of slightly awkward silence and then Danny shook his head in mock wonder. “Wow, Dad. Never thought you’d say somethin’ so syrupy. For _me!_ ”

“Any of you. All of you,” Frank amended, frowning sternly at Danny, who grinned crookedly back.

“Yeh, that’s what I thought. And speakin’ of all of us, you…didn’t happen to call Jamie at Harvard, did you?”

Joe shook his head vigorously. “Definitely not. He’d probably _fail a test_ if he found out.”

Danny laughed and then hissed, rubbing gingerly at his side. “Don’t do that, Joe, that hurts.”

Erin leaned forward in her chair, squeezing Danny’s uninjured hand as she said fiercely, “Better hurt than the alternative.”

“Definitely. I need to get hurt more often if it means you’re all gonna be this nice to me,” Danny pointed out. Erin’s hand-squeeze turned into an arm-smack, but Joe pulled her off before it could get any uglier.

“Time for you to rest,” Frank ordered.

“Yes, sir,” Danny sighed quietly, finally allowing his guard to slip down into the first restful darkness of the day. The only noise in the room became the steady beat of the heart monitor and the hearts of the family syncing to it, very much alive.


End file.
